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These guys came out of nowhere, and with a blow! If you haven’t heard of them yet, you really need to check these guys out. Divulgent is a new band in the scene, who published their page and two songs anonymously and have recently revealed themselves. We got a chance to have an interview with them, and talk more about their music and plans. Read up if you’d like to get to know these guys better!

Hey guys! How are you doing? Thanks for talking to me today. It’s always exciting having a new band on board! Let’s get straight to the questions that everyone is waiting for! So, how did DIVULGENT start and how did its current members find each other?

Hello Maya, thank you for contacting us! We’re really excited to have finally surfaced in the scene as well.
It all began when Adel was playing with another band and was searching for a guitarist and drummer for that band. He contacted Ziad and Hassan, but at the time they both didn’t want to “join” a band. Months passed before Adel was free again and contacted both Ziad and Hassan and decided to start something fresh from scratch. Peter and a bassist were contacted after, and we decided to sit down and discuss what kind of project we would each like to start. Our original bassist was always busy with university and work, so we decided to keep his spot empty until we find the perfect person. That is when Ziad contacted Danton, his childhood friend and band-mate, and he showed a huge interest in the material we were already working on and decided to contribute to the project and fill our missing spot.

Was there a common goal before or after you guys got together?

Well, it wasn’t easy to draw a common “goal” at first. Finding such musicians was something and getting these somehow strangers to get to know each other more and sit in one room and work on music and set common goals was another thing. But it wasn’t too long until we started seeing what everyone liked and disliked and took it from there. And since day one there was always this goal to do something that has never been done in Lebanon and do it in our own way. I mean, like every band we wanted to do something big and unique, and we had to work step by step until we could all reach the same vision of where we want this band to go and how to do it. And that was always our priority, to start with something simple and produce something unique out of it.

What were you doing before DIVULGENT and how did your musical careers/differences affect you as a band?

Before Divulgent each of us had a project going, they’re all still active with their bands except for Adel. Ziad and Danton play with Madjera, Hassan with Blaakyum, and Adel used to play with Phenomy then DeathTone for a short while. Peter was the only band-free musician until he recently joined Eden as a session guitarist, but he was and still is doing his own thing, which is covering songs online. Besides these mentioned bands, each member had several bands before and gained a lot of different experiences and that’s maybe one of the reasons we were able to work together on something new, with a fusion of all our past experiences.

How did you come up with the name DIVULGENT and what does it mean?

Well we spent a lot of time looking for a name we could relate to with our ideas, and most importantly we wanted a unique name. Every name we thought of was either taken or found in different ways, since there are thousands of bands out there, until Adel said why not find something that means “digging for secrets and sharing them”. And there it was when the band took some time to come up with Divulgent. It’s not an actual word, we took it from the word “divulge” which means “to reveal a secret”. So Divulgence was an option until we ended up with Divulgent that for us meant “the one to reveal a secret” and it was the perfect name for us.

That’s cool! So does that mean there is any specific concept to your band, weather lyrically or musically, and does it relate directly to your name?

Let’s break this into two parts since the answer is both yes and no. It’s a “yes” to the lyrical side where we want to send messages to people about many things that are not topics that we hear about a lot in music, and really are things that can make a huge difference in everyone’s lives and that’s our main direction…musically it’s a “no” since every song is supposed to have its own identity through the theme given. And usually the themes are discussed before actually writing so that when the music starts being formed you can actually have an idea about the song’s theme and direction. And both ways what we write and discuss is always about the message that should be delivered so here’s a yes to the relationship between our concept and the name.

How would you describe your music and what do you think influences your musical style?

Our music is a variety of styles, but we can simply describe it as straight-forward. I mean we have the abilities to go very technical, complex and progressive the whole time but why not just be simpler and straight to the point? It doesn’t always matter how fast you can play or how theoretical you can be in writing music as long as you can express it clearly. Yes, we do experiment mainly with the music patterns and their flow, but not really with sounds as some would expect from the term “experimental”. We tend to always keep different grooves flowing through the song from beginning to end, sometimes we tend to break it but it always comes back to hit you again. Maybe that’s due to the very different influences that we have from bands like The Faceless, Meshuggah, Lamb of God, Slipknot, Necrophagist to the likes of Dream Theater, Animals As Leaders, Metallica, Linkin Park and many others. You see, we have many influences and that’s the main reason we can write with no limits and not be restricted with our music as long as it’s groovy, catchy and represents the theme. We can go from djent to groove metal to death metal to nu-metal in a very simple way because we have all these influences and a great chemistry and understanding between us.

What are other nonmusical things that inspire you when you are writing?

Everything is inspiring for us. History, technology, politics, sociology, environment, and anything in our daily lives is a place of inspiration. But choosing the best ideas for our music usually comes from what is going wrong with the world around us and the messages that should be delivered. And as previously said, not the mainstream issues that have been talked about millions of times. That’s how we choose the topics… We don’t look much at something, instead we look deep into it to find even more issues lying behind this huge curtain we’re not supposed to look beyond.

Did you start out by writing songs to a specific style and tuck with it, or did you have to experiment to reach your current sound?

Honestly at first we thought we would be playing a certain style which was mostly Djent but there was always something missing that we needed to add on to feel a certain satisfaction. I mean the band is not 1 composer and 1 brain deciding what to do next. Everything we do, we decide on collectively because we are very aware that with all the different influences and experiences we have, something better can be done somewhere and any of the 5 people in this band have the same 20% chance of making something better in each song and taking it to a different place. Thus, we had to experiment a lot and will keep experimenting to find the best components for each song we want to write.

That’s very interesting to hear! So how do you compose your songs and do you usually have a concept behind each one prior to writing it or does that part come after?

Writing ideas is always there whether there is a theme or not. I mean we’re musicians and always have something to write, and if we want to throw an album now we absolutely can because we have tons of material but that’s not our purpose. When it comes to executing a song it’s mostly a theme translated into a music piece and then developed. Unless we come up with a piece that translates to specific topic that is important to talk about as our first song was written, so we discuss this theme and develop the piece into a song while we always spend time researching about each theme to have a better understanding of the topic especially when it’s time to write the lyrics. We do care a lot about the concept of each song so we would never just throw random pieces together just to finish a song without a complete understanding of how to make this song itself talk about the theme with every single instrument.

Mosh Kill 3 Event Desciption:

[En] Pure concentrate of metal. On the program, three groups with various styles. Thrillogy (heavy / thrash), Torpedo (thrash) and Hold The Breath (metalcore) are waiting for you on Saturday, February 10 at 4 pm, at room 36 of the Boultek, Center for Contemporary Music (basement Technopark Casablanca). A concert of high power sound. Mosh Kill 3.

Since 2011, war has greatly ravaged Syria’s cities and villages, claiming the lives of almost half a million individuals and leaving several other millions internally displaced or seeking asylum abroad. In light of this human tragedy, we wonder as metalheads: what has become of the Syrian Metal scene? “Syrian Metal is War” tackles the issue at hand. Continue reading

About UDO Dirkschneider

Udo Dirkschneider is a German Heavy Metal singer who rose to fame with German metallers Accept. After leaving Accept in 1987 and again in 1997, he formed U.D.O., with whom he has enjoyed commercial success as well. After Accept had their Hiatus, they came back with UDO in 2006 but then he was replaced with Mark Tomillo from 2009 until today.

During a press conference at Wacken Open Air, Germany, UDO announced his definitive farewell to the Accept song library. On a special tour beginning in 2016, he will perform songs by Accept one last time before he lays them to rest. The legendary singer didn’t tour under the name of his solo band U.D.O. but rather using only DIRKSCHNEIDER.

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Metal Night With SHOGUN is the first Event Since… Nervecell played in Qatar on June 22nd, 2012. Could this be the start of an actual Metal Scene in Qatar? We will have to wait and see! We will be reporting everything we know about the Qatar emerging Metal Scene on www.metal-bell.com. Stay Tuned.

Event Description

SHOGUN are playing TONIGHT IN DOHA!! Get ready for the heavier stuff (MAIDEN anyone?) on Thursday the 1st of February at the Wonderbuzz located at The Horizon Manor Hotel (1st Floor). That’s TONIGHT!!

Be there at 8 sharp and get ready for a long loud night of headbanging and singing along! SHOGUN are covering every metal genre (except for the extremes cuz we have friends who do that🤗) that emerged over 40 years of metal including covers for IRON MAIDEN, METALLICA, BLACK SABBATH, OZZY, SOAD AND OTHERS! We’re looking forward to seeing you there! Make sure you make whatever necessary arrangements to come! HELP THE SCENE BREAK THROUGH IN DOHA!

DIRKSCHNEIDER is a group led by UDO Dirkschneider, the former lead singer of ACCEPT.
He formed the band and started touring the world with one aim, bidding farewell to his former band ACCEPT. He plans to play his material from his time with ACCEPT one last time. Continue reading

Anneke Van Giersbergen was poised, charismatic, and down to earth. Two hours before the start of the show where she and her new formed band Vuur are going to headline for the first time, we left the tour bus where an in-depth interview has just taken place (find out all about it here). “It’s unbelievable” I said to myself “Unbelievable that a mega star like Anneke can be that modest and friendly”. I guess sometimes you have to see a person outside of the limelight to discover the human in them. To have a glimpse, only a little one at their true self.

Interview with Anneke Van Giersbergen of Vuur - Ep 1 - Metal Bell Podcast! For our very first episode of ...LISTEN TO PODCAST

The place is Paris and on a cold and rainy Thursday evening of December, Vuur alongside My Propane and Scar Symmetry were ready to rock the Parisian night. Into the waiting line, I make my way and there to my surprise I meet many fans who came to see Scar Symmetry, a band that I didn’t know beforehand but for sure worth a listen. And for sure, all of Vuur’s fans waiting under rain drops to meet the stars of the night.

My Propane

The concert started with My Propane, a dark progressive band with one album under their sleeve (Modern Violent Gentleman-2013) with a new release coming soon. Their energy was quite remarkable with interesting melody lines and outstanding musicality. This band is definitely going straight to my Spotify playing list. Unexpected surprise…check!

Scar Symmetry

The next act was the Swedish melodic death metal band Scar Symmetry. This band has a lot to offer: catchy riffs, dreamy melodies, strong growls, and spacy clean voice. By seeing the many die-hard fans in the audience losing it, I could say that Scar Symmetry has built a loyal fan base through the years even if this was the first time they play in Paris for a long time. Metal dose….check!

VUUR

Then of course, it was time for the one and only Vuur. With their great melody lines, extreme music mastery, the spot on lighting, Vuur had the venue in their pocket!

Anneke, the front woman that she is, moved us all with her powerful, angelic voice proving again why she’s a power player in the metal world. She was on another dimension, moving us through space and time with her voice range and her undeniable presence on stage. She also plays an important role with the string section playing those important chords that add to the orchestra of steel.

But what caught my attention even more was the great harmony and connection between band members. Beginning with Ed Warby behind the drums, the guardian of the rhythm, he was spot on the whole concert bringing fluidity and beat to the sound.

And then there was the string section comprised of Jord Otto (guitars), Ferry Duijsens (guitars), and Johan van Stratum (bass). The energy between those three gentlemen was very satisfying to watch. Goofing on stage, making fun of one another, all while rocking the hell out of their instruments. With great solos of Otto, cut clear bass lines of van Stratum, and hypnotic rhythms of Duijsens, the mix was explosive.

They were not shy to include Anneke into their little stage games. Seeing the band on stage was a privilege. The playing, the amusement, and the stage atmosphere made the concert an extraordinary experience. A night to remember…check!

The setlist included mainly songs from Vuur new album “In this Moment We are Free-Cities”, but the surprise package were songs from “The Gentle Storm” (Anneke’s latest music adventures), a Devin Townsend song (Fallout), and the ending was no other than The Gathering’s signature song “Strange Machine” (for the full setlist, click here*). The only other song that I personally wished to be included was the power ballad “Freedom” from their latest release.

Taking a step back to see the whole picture, it seems that Vuur is one big family: The band members for sure but also lighting technicians, Evert behind the console and Robbin the tour manager who even with a broken hand because of a “stupid accident” (to paraphrase her own words) is around to make sure that it all goes smooth and on schedule for the band.

All in all, Vuur’s concert got the Metal Bell seal of approval! The only downside in my opinion was that there were some empty spots in the concert hall. An event like that really does merit a full house.

After the show, in a generous gesture, the band was at the merchandise booth for their traditional after party meet and greet. I make my way to thank Anneke and the boys for a great evening.

Then again, with a smile, with the lights almost out, and the energy fading away, we exchanged our farewells. The contrast between now and then tremendous just like the warrior’s rest after a glorious fight…. The balance is restored….. This is “Darkness and Light”…..

– By Maher Ajamane

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Only moments ago, Slayer disturbed metalheads around the globe by announcing a farewell tour. The announcement featured a trailer in which Slayer took us with nostalgia. This, however, came as no shock to most people as the band, especially Tom Araya, had kept hinting at the possibility of retirement.

Slayer are yet to announce tour dates(updated: 25-1-18: scroll down for dates and links of each event), but as the video shows it will be a WORLD TOUR!

Slayer To Bid Fans Farewell: “The End is Near…Slayer to tour the world one more time…”

Apparently, the farewell tour will feature: Lamb Of God, Anthrax, Behemoth, and Testament. As you can see in the poster below, that was posted simultaneously with the farewell tour announcement video on the band’s official website.

Slayer then posted on all their social media outlets the following:

The end is near…
SLAYER TO MAKE ITS EXIT WITH ONE FINAL WORLD TOUR

After making some of the most brutal, breathtakingly aggressive, all-hell’s-a-breaking-loose music ever created, playing nearly 3000 concerts in all corners of the world, receiving countless awards, gracing hundreds of magazine covers, experiencing the devastating loss of a founding brother, and even appearing on “The Tonight Show,” the age of Slayer, one of the greatest thrash/ metal/punk bands of this or any age, is coming to an end.

Slayer will do one last concert tour around the globe to thank their fans for all of their support over the years, for making the last three-and-a-half decades so packed with good times and unforgettable experiences, and will then move on.

Lamb of God, Anthrax, Behemoth and Testament will support Slayer on the first leg, North America, of its final world tour.

Tickets go on sale to the public this Friday, January 26 at 10AM local time.